Dear Abby: My son beat addiction and now behaves like a pompous jerk

DEAR ABBY: I received a Facebook message from my first cousin.In it, she apologized for not communicating for the past 10 months.

It ended with, “Send me your address so I can send you a birth announcement.” Abby, I wasn’t even aware that she had been pregnant.I contacted her father, who said the child was born two months ago.This cousin is not a teen or unwed.

She’s a professional and married.I am puzzled, not only because I wasn’t told, but mainly because her message did not announce the birth, other than referencing that an announcement would be mailed. Frankly, I’m confused and not interested in feigning sudden interest in a situation I was excluded from knowing about.I can’t help but assume the purpose of the mailed announcement is a gift grab, coming months after the child’s arrival.Your thoughts? — LEFT IN THE DARKDEAR LEFT: Heaven only knows what may have happened with your cousin.

There may be much more to this story than the fact that you were “excluded.”There may have been problems with your cousin’s pregnancy or with her baby, which your relatives were reluctant to share.Please don’t start a grudge unless you have facts that indicate otherwise.Act appropriately, send a little something for that baby, along with a supportive message, and you will have fewer regrets. DEAR ABBY: My youngest son, age 27, has been clean and sober for two years, having survived the horrible addiction of fentanyl.

I helped nurse him back to health.It wasn’t easy, but he is alive today.However, with this sobriety, a new person is emerging who is critical of and condescending to his siblings and to me.He finds flaws in all of us that “disgust him,” and therefore, he has chosen to no longer engage with us. He claims he is telling “his truth” and only “right or wrong” exists for him anymore.

He has no problem with hurting our feelings as that is “our problem” and he “won’t cater to society’s norms anymore.”I come to him fr...